» To rah por tion Will We Hear The Call? Parshat Vayikra, Shabbat Zachor: Leviticus 1:1-5:26, Deuteronomy 25:17-19; Samuel 15:2-15:34. Editor’s note: In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Morris Adler of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield and in tribute to his memory, this Torah commentary was select- ed from Rabbi Adler’s book, The Voice Still Speaks. Rabbi Morris Adler A single word gives its name to the portion we read this week, as well as to the entire third book of the Pentateuch — Vayikra — “And He called.” The first verse of the book reads, “And He called unto Moses and the Lord spoke unto Moses in the tent of the assembly.” “And the Lord called unto Moses.” Here is that wonderful old English word that is becoming rare upon our lips, a “calling.” A man’s work was not simply his task, a means of establishing status or even for earn- ing a livelihood. It was a calling. We have somewhat degraded the word “vocation” when we speak of vocational training or vocational guidance. Vocation, in Latin, means “calling.” Once when the word was used, a man felt that he had been placed upon Earth in the midst of fellows to fulfill a purpose and that he had been given an assignment. It would be a betrayal of both the God he believed in and of his own inner integrity not to fulfill the vocation, the call that had come to him. We still use the word occasionally in con- nection with the clergy. We say a man has received a call, but it is not a call from God; it is a call from a board of trustees, and it comes in a very tangible form with very tan- gible promises and conditions … This sense of mission we ought to recover for ourselves, for we live in a difficult and challenging time. The challenge is in propor- tion to the difficulty, and the opportunity is as great as the danger. In one respect, this may be the greatest time in all history, for the decisions we make in our generation, or perhaps in the genera- tion immediately following ours, will deter- mine, in a very literal sense, life or death. A RESPONSIBILITY TO SOCIETY If more people felt a sense of calling, if they felt that their existence must be translated into service, that in addition to their personal fulfillment there rests upon them a burden of responsibility for their times and their society — then perhaps we might find our way to the solution that will spell life for the future. America started as a calling. It started as a revolution, and I sometimes feel we spent the rest of our history in cancelling out the implications of the revolution. We started with a great idea. If you read the documents of the founding fathers, you sense a prophetic zeal in them. They were not founding just another state. They were not setting out simply to conquer a conti- nent, frontier after frontier. They were not striving simply for wealth. They had a pur- pose to fulfill … How important is it for us to recapture this sense of calling, the idea that being an American is something more than having opportunities denied to the larger part of mankind. Being an American places upon us tremendous responsibilities, which must be borne however great the sacrifice if we are to be true to our vocation. Somewhere in our educational system, somewhere in our religious life, somewhere continued on page 32 An Evening of Comedy featuring MODI Thursday, April 14, 2016 Registration opens at 6:30 p.m. Program begins at 7:00 p.m. Modi, The Garden Theater talented Israeli stand-up comedian, actor ΙәÊ7œœ`Ü>À`ÊÛi˜ÕiÊUÊʈ`ÌœÜ˜Ê iÌÀœˆÌ Laugh the evening away with and cantor. He is one of the comedy circuit’s hottest entertainers and has been voted one of the “Top 10 Comedians” in New York City by the Hollywood Reporter. Modi has enjoyed a career both on the big and small screen. iÃÃiÀÌÊ>˜`Ê7ˆ˜iÊ,iVi«Ìˆœ˜ ,-6*Ê̜ÊÌ>“>À>VŽV>“«Ã°Vœ“ÉÎÓÌiÛi˜ÌÊ or 248-647-1100 ˆiÌ>ÀÞʏ>ÜÃʜLÃiÀÛi` / i>ÌiÀÊ«>ÀŽˆ˜}ÊVœÕÀÌiÃÞʜvÊ-Ì>ÀÊ/À>ÝÊ Ûi˜Ìà 2058270 March 17 • 2016 31